


Flutter

by merlinus_ambrosius



Series: Fabled Spoils [2]
Category: Prospect (2018)
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25126606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merlinus_ambrosius/pseuds/merlinus_ambrosius
Summary: Ezra spends an evening with his precocious daughter.
Relationships: Cee (Prospect 2018) & OFC, Cee/Ezra, Ezra (Prospect 2018) & OFC, Ezra (Prospect 2018)/Cee (Prospect 2018)
Series: Fabled Spoils [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820116
Comments: 10
Kudos: 14





	Flutter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irishleesh93](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irishleesh93/gifts), [alwaysupatnight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysupatnight/gifts), [redhouseclan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redhouseclan/gifts), [Ridingbycandlelight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ridingbycandlelight/gifts).



“That blue one is a swallowtail. See the little forked tail, like a swallow? And that orange one is a fire blossom,” said Ezra to his small daughter, putting on display the many hours of research he’d been forced to undertake since naming her after a butterfly.

“How about the red and black one with spots, Papa?” she asked from her perch on top of his shoulders as they meandered through the tall grass.

“That’s you! That’s the vanessa!”

“That’s not me, Papa!” she giggled. “My name is Flutter!” He chuckled too. It was a standing joke in their family. Though her real name was indeed Vanessa, Ezra had started calling her Butterfly soon after her birth. When she learned to talk, all she could say of her name was “Flutter,” and it had stuck. Though Cee had held out for calling her by her proper name for an entire year, she too had succumbed to calling their daughter by her nickname.

“Oh, Papa, _look!_ There’s a _purple_ one!” Flutter whispered. “Can we follow it?”

“I’m afraid it’s gettin’ too dark to be stompin’ around in this grass now, Flutter. Let’s go back to our blanket and see what kind of banquet your mama prepared us.”

Flutter groaned but had no choice but to accompany her transport.

They had picked a spot close to the waterfalls, but not so close that the mist obscured their view of the sky. It was a starwatching night on here on Blaven V.

“Aw, Papa, look!” Flutter held up a container with a scowl. “Babao fruit. Yuck!”

“Have you ever heard the Terrible Legend of the Babao Fruit?” Ezra asked, taking a swig from his thermos of jav.

“Oooh.” Flutter settled down onto the blanket. “Is it gory and gruesome?”

“Oh yes. Decidedly. Remember now, not all legends are strictly true. But”—he lowered his voice—“some of them are.”

“Tell me the legend, Papa,” Flutter ordered, her dark eyes sparkling as she gobbled down everything but the fruit.

Ezra wiped cupcake frosting off her nose. Cee had a desserts-last policy, but Ezra was not an enthusiast of it. “Legend has it,” Ezra began, thinking fast, “that long ago, on a faraway planet, there was a princess who would eat nothin’ but sweets. Cupcakes, pies, chocolate, taffy—she ate it all. But fruits? Vegetables?” He shook his head sadly. “She wanted nothin’ to do with ’em.”

“Wish l lived there,” Flutter muttered.

“It was a terrible thing,” Ezra said, dwelling on the point. “She grew pale and listless and didn’t even want to play or sing or go outside…”

Twilight had faded into darkness by the time Ezra drew the story to a close. “And now, the little babao fruit is cursed forevermore. For whoever dares to eat it, when in her heart she prefers to eat cupcakes, will be stricken with Death by Purple Spots.”

“I won’t be stricken, Papa,” Flutter declared. “I’m not having premonitions of impending doom.”

“I wouldn’t take any chances, Flutter. Death by Purple Spots is a ghastly fate. Horrible to behold.”

Flutter gulped down the fruit.

Scant seconds later, she was itching at her neck. “Papa! What’s this spot?”

He turned on their glow lamp to get a look. “I’m afraid it’s…purple-y, Flutter.”

“Oh no!” she gasped. “They’re all over me now! It’s true that I like cupcakes better! Tell Mama goodbye for me.”

“She sure would miss you,” said Ezra.

After making a variety of choking noises and grabbing her middle, Flutter fell over onto her back and stuck her feet in the air.

“Look, Papa, I’m dead,” she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

“Well now, your technique could use some improvement. You were a little stiff. You need more flop when you collapse.”

“I can’t hear you, I’m dead,” she hissed.

“That’s all right,” Ezra said, lying down on his back too. “I’m already out here, so I’ll just watch the stars all by myself.”

“Wait for me, Papa,” Flutter said, abandoning her pose and scrambling over beside him to lay her head on his chest.

“It’s still a little too light out yet to see them well. Since I told you a story, why don’t you take a turn and tell me one?”

“Can I tell you one I already heard before?”

“Of course. Which one?”

“I’ll tell you one of the Brave One stories. ‘The Brave One and the ’Mergency Surgery.’”

“I don’t think I know that one.”

“Papa!” Flutter scolded him. “Stop teasing. It’s your favorite. You always say you have a starrin’ role in it.”

“Oh, I do vaguely recall claimin’ to be the costar of that story. All right then. Make sure you get all the details right. You don’t want me interjectin’.”

  


  


“What’s that one, with the brightest star in it?”

“That’s the mariner. The star is the figurehead on the front of his ship. And see, below him, the mermaid? Look at all the stars in her hair.”

“It’s like our waterfalls.”

Ezra pointed out a few more constellations that he’d learned on his many sojourns with his brother, but Flutter’s responses were growing shorter and fainter.

“Are you still awake, Flutter?”

“Yes. No. I’m”—a huge yawn overtook her—“getting sorta…”

Ezra packed up their blanket, pack, and light, and then hoisted Flutter up for a piggyback ride.

He had expected her to last a little longer with the stars, but maybe all the storytelling wore her out first.

“Papa…how’d you get so smart?” she asked drowsily.

“I’m not really smart, Flutter.”

She giggled. “Yes you are, Papa. You know about _everything_ when I ask you.”

“Hmm. I think you’re mistaken there. You just haven’t asked me enough questions yet.” And truth be told, if he didn’t know the answer, he usually just made up a story to cover the topic. He wasn’t sure that was strictly ethical, but it did keep the number of questions coming at a more reasonable rate.

“Papa…,” she said a few minutes later, as he set her down in a ConVe for home, “did you eat the babao fruit?”

“I did.”

“And did you get any purple spots?”

“I did not. I prefer sausages, not cupcakes, to babao fruit. The curse doesn’t work at all for sausages.”

“Papa…,” she said as they got out of the ConVe and walked toward the house, “…something’s been crawling on me. Lots of somethings. Maybe spiders."

Stifling a curse, Ezra hustled Flutter around to the back garden of the house and let them in through the gate in the high wall. He wasn’t sure if she knew what she was talking about, but he wasn’t taking any chances. If he brought a child infested with spiders into the house, Cee would never ever forgive him.

“Quick, take off everything and jump in the fountain,” Ezra whispered. “It’s a warm night.”

Flutter balked. “That sounds too fun for bedtime.”

“Maybe the creepy-crawlies like swimmin’ too. A little treat’ll do ’em good.”

“All right,” she said suspiciously. She was soon wide awake and splashing and singing like a lark.

The outside lights came on, and Ezra saw his pregnant wife standing at the glass doors of the house with a couple of towels.

“Looks like we’ve been discovered, Flutter. Feel better? Nothin’ squirmin’ around on you?”

“Nope!” said Flutter cheerfully, marching confidently toward the door and leaving little bare footprints on the stone pavers.

  


_\+ + +_

  


Cee opened the door for her two renegades, towels in hand. “Why am I not surprised that half of you came in completely unclothed and soaking wet? I’m not even going to ask.” She shook her head and didn’t wait for a response, as Flutter had started shivering and she vigorously toweled her daughter dry. 

“All right, Flutter, why don’t you go grab your jammies?” Cee said as she managed to stand again. “Papa will give you a nice hot bath and a story before bed.”

Flutter ran off, and Ezra said, putting down the picnic supplies and Flutter’s clothes, “The other half could try to surprise you too.”

Cee choked on a laugh and draped the remaining towel around his neck. “I don’t know about _surprise,_ ” she said, using the ends of the towel to pull his head down to hers, “but if you’re offering, I wouldn’t refuse…”

Oh she had missed this so much. Lately they’d just been falling into bed exhausted at night and not even moving until they had to stagger out of bed the next morning to get through the day all over again.

“It’s been too long, Cee,” Ezra murmured, echoing her thoughts. 

“But Ezra,” she whispered, “I’m as big as a jimbabear.”

The way he pulled her closer against him told her he didn’t think this protest was even worthy of a reply.

The baby, who did not like being compressed, even between his parents, gave her a vigorous kick. Then she felt a tug at her leggings.

“This is not the time for that.” 

The words, and even the tone, sounded almost as if they had come straight from Cee’s own mouth. She startled, and looked at Ezra. His grin told her Flutter’s imitation was exact.

Flutter was standing next to them with hands on hips. “And promises were made regardin’ bedtime procedures.”

“Ezra,” Cee whispered, bumping her forehead against his chest, “what have we done?” 

By the way he was shaking, she could tell it was all he could do to hold back laughter. She turned to face her daughter and said sternly, “Don’t we speak kindly and respectfully to each other in this family, Flutter?”

Flutter tossed her head.

“It’d be a shame to go to bed with only a bath and not a story too,” said Ezra mournfully.

Flutter looked undecisive then said, “ _Please_ can I have my bath now and then a couple of stories if you are _finally_ done kissing _again_?”

Ezra released Cee and took Flutter’s hand. “Your mama and I are _not_ done kissin’, but we will continue later at our discretion. _One_ story, I believe, was the arrangement.”

“Two stories would be most satisfactory, Papa. I think two would be precisely the right number.”

“Now, I recall that one was the agreed-upon amount. We should always keep our word, isn’t that right?”

“One _long_ story, Papa?”

He pretended to consider deeply, then sighed as if the decision was being forced out of him. “Well, all right, that is technically part of the deal. I shall tell you a deliciously scary story, one that will curl your toes and curdle your gizzard.”

She skipped as she went with him to the bath. “Curdle my _whole_ gizzard, Papa?”

“Every corner of it.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “It’s the story of the Brave One and the Eight-Legged Beast of the Darkshed…”

  


  



End file.
